Authored by Chris Menahan via InformationLiberation.com,
The New York Times reported Saturday evening that a "senior Ukrainian official" corroborated Russian reports that Ukraine was behind the truck bomb attack on the Crimean bridge which killed at least three civilians.
From The New York Times, "Blast on Crimean Bridge Deals Blow to Russian War Effort in Ukraine":
The blast and fire sent part of the 12-mile Kerch Strait Bridge tumbling into the sea and killed at least three people, according to the Russian authorities. A senior Ukrainian official corroborated Russian reports that Ukraine was behind the attack. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a government ban on discussing the blast, added that Ukraine's intelligence services had orchestrated the explosion, using a bomb loaded onto a truck being driven across the bridge.
Ещё одно видео из соцсетей, предположительно, с моментом подрыва Крымского моста pic.twitter.com/58kNsvaGGS
— РЕН ТВ | Новости (@rentvchannel) October 8, 2022
[...] It was unclear if the driver of the truck, who died in the blast, was aware there were explosives inside. In video captured by a surveillance camera on the bridge, a huge fireball is seen, seeming to consume several vehicles. A small sedan and a tractor-trailer truck driving side by side appear at the epicenter of the blast. The explosion caused two sections of the bridge to partly collapse.
The truck driver was identified by Russian media as 51-year-old Mahir Yusubov of Azerbaijan.
⚡️ Breaking:
— OsintTv📺 (@OsintTv) October 8, 2022
Russian media report : Photo of the driver who was reportedly driving a truck that exploded on the #Crimeanbridge
This is 51-year-old Mahir Yusubov. He was engaged in transportation and constantly traveled around the Krasnodar Territory#Crimea pic.twitter.com/It4dLhZloM
Yusubov reportedly received an order to transport fertilizer through the internet and may have had his truck wired with explosives by Ukrainian special-ops units who used him as an unwitting suicide bomber.
The driver of the truck that exploded on the Crimean bridge received an order to transport fertilizer via the internet, a source in law enforcement told RBK.
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) October 8, 2022
According to the source, the driver was not aware of the planned attack.
"There
is no doubt, this is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically
important civilian infrastructure," Russian president Vladimir Putin
said on Sunday in response to the attack. "This was devised, carried out
and ordered by the Ukrainian special services."
❗️Putin: The attack on the Crimean bridge is a terrorist act against Russian critical civilian infrastructure perpetrated by Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/0q6Ze7YE54
— Putin Direct (@PutinDirect) October 9, 2022
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky taunted Russia over the bombing with a tongue-in-cheek weather report.
"Today was a good and mostly sunny day in our country," Zelensky said. "Over most of the territory, it was about 20 degrees Celsius and sunny."
"Unfortunately,
it was cloudy in Crimea, although it was still warm. But however the
clouds are, Ukrainians know what to do, and they know that our future is
sunny," he continued. "This is the future without invaders, on all our
territory, in particular in Crimea."
'Cloudy in Crimea': Zelensky taunts Putin over bridge blast with a tongue-in-cheek weather report
— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) October 9, 2022
He and his handlers are for sure the most dangerous men in the world
He looks on the video like he is on some kind of "stimulant elixirs" pic.twitter.com/o9DLqmRvcd
Russian media identified two victims of the bombing as "a husband-and-wife team of tour guides from St. Petersburg" who made YouTube videos on Russian history.
"The victims of the attack were Eduard, 53, and Zoya, 33, who were husband and wife, Mash wrote. Zoya was a professional historian and journalist, while Eduard specialized in the history and architecture of St. Petersburg," RT reported.
"They created two YouTube channels in 2020, where they had begun publishing documentaries. The channels currently only feature a series about the last Russian emperor, Nikolai II, and his family titled: 'The Last Romanovs. The fall of the empire.'"
